(a.), the usual name for the conclusion resulting from the combination of the two premisses (
muḳaddimāt ) in the syllogism (
ḳiyās ). It corresponds to the Stoic ἐπιφορά; this word in the works of Galen known to the Arabs is applied to the various discharges from the body but also means, as with the Stoics, the conclusion. Aristode used the words συμπέρασμα: that which concludes or completes the syllogism. In place of the usual
natīd̲j̲a we also find
ridf or
radf ( = deduction). (Tj. de Boer)

(a.) is that which has no end,
azal, that which has no beginning. The forms
abadīya and
azalīya are commonly used in theological and philosophical writings. According to orthodox teaching, only God has neither beginning nor end; this world (
dunyā) has both, the next world (
āk̲h̲ira) has a beginning but no end; there is no fourth possibility, that a thing without beginning should have an end.
Ḳidam seems to be preferred by the theologians while the philosophers and mystics use
azalīya. Ibn Rus̲h̲d even used
azalīya also for the endlessness of the world (
Tahāfut al-Tahāfut; see ed. by Bouy…

(a.), body. In philosophical language the body (σῶμα) is distinguished from the incorporeal (ἀσώματον), God, spirit, soul, etc. In so far as speculation among the Muslims was influenced by Neo-Platonism two features were emphasized: I. The incorporeal is in its nature simple and indivisible, the body on the other hand is composite and divisible; 2. the incorporeal is in spite of its negative character the original, the causing principle, while the body is a product of the incorporeal. ¶ The more or less naive anthropomorphism of early Islam,
i.e., the conception of God after the an…

, intellect or intelligence, the Arabic equivalent to Greek νοῦς. (1) In neoplatonic speculation, which in many respects resembles the late Greek doctrine of the Logos and also in many respects corresponds to the Logos christology,
ʿaḳl is the first, sometimes the second, entity which emanates from the divinity as the first cause, or proceeds from it by means of intellectual creation,
nafs and
ṭabīʿa etc. coming after
ʿaḳl in succession. As first created entity the
ʿaḳl is also called "the representative" or "the messenger" of God in this world. The neoplatonic idea of
ʿaḳl as first crea…

(a.), lit. “theory, philosophical speculation”, probably did not receive until the 9th century A.D. the meaning of research in the sense of scientific investigation as translation of the Greek θεωρία. With Aristotle, e.g.
Metaph . 1064 b2 (translated by Eustathius/Uṣtāth at the beginning of the 9th century), and the Greek
Prolegomena (Προλεγόμενα τῆς φιλοσοφίας) to the commentaries on Prophyry’s
Isagoge , the philosophies were then divided into theoretical (
naẓariyya ) and practical (
ʿamaliyya ); the latter seek to obtain the useful or the good …

(A.), pl.
āt̲h̲ār , literally "trace"; as a technical term it denotes: 1) a
tradition [see ḥadīt̲h̲ ]; 2) a
relic :
al-at̲h̲ar al-s̲h̲arīf (pl.
al-āt̲h̲ār al-s̲h̲arīfa ), relics of the Prophet, hair, teeth, autographs, utensils al-leged to have belonged to him and especially impressions of his footprints [see ḳadam ]; these objects ¶ are preserved in mosques and other public places for the edification of Muslims. Relics are also called, both by Christians and Muslims,
d̲h̲ak̲h̲īra ("treasure"). Bibliography I. Goldziher,
Muh.
St, ii, 356-68. For a description, with illustrati…

(pl.
Ḳuwā ), Arabic term denoting “strength, power”. 1. Lexicographical study. Ibn Sīda defined the word
ḳuwwa as the opposite of weakness (
naḳīd al-ḍaʿf ), cf. Ḳurʾān XXX, 54: “It is God who has created you from weakness (
min ḍaʿf ) and who then, after weakness, has given you strength (
ḳuwwa )”. It is thus the concept of strength and of vigour which is paramount. A man is described as
ḳawī when he is strong in himself, and as
muḳwī when he owns a robust mount. On the other hand, like the word
ṭāḳa (which also has the sense of “ability to act”),
ḳuwwa denotes a thread which is part of a rope. As …

(a., pl.
ʿālamūn ,
ʿawālim ), world. 1. The word is found as early as the Ḳurʾān, where in borrowed formulae we have references to the
rabb al-ʿālamīn and the seven
samawāt . Allāh is its lord and creator who has created it for man as a sign of his omnipotence. This transitory world [
dunyā ) is of little value—"not worth the wing of a midge" is the traditional expression—in comparison with the next (
āk̲h̲ira ). We are told very little about the structure of the world [cf. the article k̲h̲alḳ ]; the subjects of interest, in the Ḳurʾān as well as in Tradition, are God, the spiritual world and man. This bec…

(a.), light, synonym
ḍawʾ , also
ḍūʾ and
ḍiyāʾ (the latter sometimes used in the plural). 1. Scientific aspects According to some authors,
ḍawʾ (
ḍiyāʾ) has a more intensive meaning than
nūr (cf. Lane,
Arabic-English dictionary, s.v.
ḍawʾ); this idea has its foundation in Ḳurʾān, X, 5, where the sun is called (
ḍiyāʾ and the moon
nūr. The further deduction from this passsage that
ḍiyāʾ is used for the light of light-producing bodies (sun) and
nūr on the other hand for the reflected light in bodies which do not emit light (moon), is not correct, if we remember the primiti…

(a.). 1.
ʿAmal , performance, action, is usually discussed by the speculative theologians and philosophers only in connection with belief [see ʿilm, īmān] or with
ʿilm and
naẓar . From Hellenistic tradition was known the definition of philosophy as the "knowledge of the nature of things and the doing of good" (cf.
Mafātīḥ , ed. van Vloten, 131 f.). Many Muslim thinkers have emphasised the necessity or at least the desirability of this combination (cf. Goldziher,
Kitāb Maʿānī al-Nafs , 54*-60*). But it is the intellectualism of the Greek philosophy, in…